Email Client Market Share in March 2022

Here’s an overview of the most popular email clients in March 2022, along with the shifts that happened with email client market share last month.

Top email clients

Before we jump in, we always like to note:

1. As of fall 2021, the category “Apple” includes Apple iPhone (iOS Mail), Apple Mail (macOS Mail), Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail), and Apple Mail Privacy Protection (Apple privacy-impacted opens). Learn why in this blog post.
2. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) hides device data so we aren’t able to differentiate between iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. Additionally, the new OSes don’t differentiate between MPP and non-MPP in the user agent data it passes.

That said, the top 3 most popular email clients for March 2022 are Apple, Gmail, and Outlook.

1. Apple: 60.7%
2. Gmail: 26.5%
3. Outlook: 4.1%
4. Yahoo Mail: 3.3%
5. Google Android: 1.7%
6. Outlook.com: 0.9%
7. Samsung Mail: 0.3%
8. Windows Live Mail: 0.1%
9. Web.de: 0.05%
10. GMX: 0.04%

Apple was the most popular email client in March, accounting for 60.7% of  overall email client market share. Each month since the launch of MPP, Apple’s share has been increasing slowly, growing from 51.4% in October to now 60.7%.

When we take a closer look at each Apple subcategory, we can see that the uptick in Apple Mail Privacy Protection’s share is what’s causing the growth in Apple’s overall email client market share. It now accounts for 53.1% of all Apple clients. 

Here’s a breakdown of each Apple subcategory:

1. Apple Mail Privacy Protection: 53.1%
2. Apple iPhone (iOS Mail): 4.2%
3. Apple Mail (macOS Mail): 3.0%
4. Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail): 0.4%

As a result of Apple’s growing market share, Gmail and Outlook saw a decline. Gmail is the second most popular email client at 26.5% and in third is Outlook at 4.1%.

Looking for more data and trends? Check out our email client market share site, which includes Apple’s MPP data, pre and post-MPP launch.

Opens by environment

With Litmus Email Analytics, we’ve been able to track MPP since October 2021. However, as MPP adoption continues to normalize, we consider our metrics on Apple privacy-impacted opens to be early data.

Having said that, here are the most popular open environments:

1. Apple Mail Privacy Protection: 52.6%
2. Webmail: 32.9%
3. Mobile: 7.1%
4. Desktop: 6.6%
5. Other: 0.9%

Prior to Apple’s MPP launch, webmail was historically the most popular open environment. But in December 2021, that changed as Apple Mail Privacy Protection took the top spot. It continues to grow, from 49.4% to 52.6% (a 6.5% growth).

Most popular mobile opens

As for mobile, the top email clients are still Apple iPhone (iOS Mail), Google Android, Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail).

1. Apple iPhone (iOS Mail): 63.8%
2. Google Android: 25.4%
3. Apple iPad (iPadOS Mail): 5.7%

In March, Apple iPhone (iOS Mail) continued to see a decline, from 69.9% in February to 63.8%. It peaked in August 2021 at 90.5% and has been declining since. However, even with this decline, it continues to reign as the most popular mobile email client.

Most popular webmail opens

The most popular webmail clients are Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook.com—no surprise here.

1. Gmail: 86.0% 
2. Yahoo Mail: 10.8%
3. Outlook.com: 2.9%

Gmail continues to see a decline—from 86.2% in February to 86% in March—a 0.2% decrease. It’s still the most popular email client by a landslide, though. Yahoo Mail and Outlook.com follow in second and third place, respectively.

Wondering why we categorize Gmail as webmail? Learn how Gmail opens are reported in Email Analytics.

Most popular desktop opens

What are the most popular desktop clients? The top 3 are (still) Outlook, Apple Mail (macOS Mail), and Windows Live Mail.

1. Outlook: 57.1%
2. Apple Mail (macOS Mail): 41.6%
3. Windows Live Mail: 1.1%

Outlook and Apple Mail (macOS Mail) take a majority of the share, but first place still goes to Outlook. For some background, in January 2022, Outlook took the top spot as the most popular email client, previously occupied by Apple Mail (macOS Mail). In March, it continued to grow, by 5.9% (from 53.9% to 57.1%)—still holding its spot as number one.

Light Mode vs. Dark Mode opens

Let’s take a closer look at Light Mode vs. Dark Mode. But before we dive in, note that our Dark Mode data is based only on the Apple Mail app for iOS 13, macOS 13, iOS 14, macOS 14, iPadOS 14, iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and Apple Mail privacy-impacted devices.

1. Light Mode: 72.7%
2. Dark Mode: 27.3%

Light Mode owns a majority of the share here at 72.7%. It decreased slightly, from 74.2% to 72.7%. Dark Mode accounts for 27.3% of opens.

What about your audience?

Though these insights are powerful tools to have in your email arsenal, it’s best to tap into the power of your audience. We recommend using the information shared in this blog post as a reference point for the industry as a whole, but the real key lies within your subscriber base.

We’ll be back next month to share what shifts took place.

Where did we get all this data? Our email client market share stats are pulled from over a billion email opens, anonymously collected, and aggregated with Litmus Email Analytics from March 1-31, 2022. It highlights global trends across all industries and verticals. Some email clients may be over- or under-represented, particularly with mobile and webmail. This is due to image blocking or image caching, most notably with Gmail. Still curious? Learn how we get this data.

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